My little guy has never liked solids. He is exclusively breast fed and our pediatrician raised concerns about weight gain yesterday and asked us to supplement with formula. I would really like to think I could just increase solids but he won't eat.

I have tried BLW, I have tried puree, I have tried it all. I mean if it's out there I've tried it... unless I missed it? I don't know. I'm at my wits end. He won't take a bottle. I actually gave in and tried to give him 2 oz of formula last night and he just refused it. How do I get some calories in this kid?!

March 26th, 2014, 06:53 AM

@llli*mommal

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

Can you give us a weight history? Then we could see whether or not the pediatrician has a reason for being concerned.

It's entirely normal for a baby who is <1 year to show little or no interest in solids. Until the first birthday, they're just for fun with new tastes, textures, and motor skills. Breastmilk alone can meet all your baby's nutritional needs until around the first birthday. So it's totally normal for him to not be eating solids at this point. Neither of my kids did.

He only has had three wet (barely wet) diapers a day recently too, so she was concerned about my supply.

March 26th, 2014, 08:10 AM

@llli*apifera

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

As for how often he nurses, he is a snacker. I honestly couldn't count. Sometimes twice an hour, sometimes every hour or so.

March 26th, 2014, 12:11 PM

@llli*mommal

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

Based on that chart and the fact that your baby is nursing frequently and on demand, I don't see a problem. Your baby seems to be kind of wiggling around the 50th %ile, and has done so since birth. Consistently following a curve is a good indicator that growth is normal- though one should never expect a baby to follow a curve exactly. The curves are generated using data from a large sample of individuals, and one individual will never look exactly like the statistically derived average.

Your baby dropped off a bit since his last weigh in and that is also normal for an older baby. First, growth isn't happening at the same rate in all dimensions at all times. Growth proceeds in spurts, right? So sometimes a baby will put more calories into growing lengthwise and will pause a bit in weight gain, or will gain a lot of weight but not get much taller. Second, older babies are increasingly mobile babies, and that means more and more calories are going into things like kicking/crawling/sitting up/reaching/playing/toddling/etc. It's very normal for a baby to drop percentiles as he gets more active, and highly active babies often drop further than more sedentary ones.

Basically, my guess is that your doc is looking at the chart, not the baby. If you look only at the chart, then it can seem scary when a baby is "dropping off his curve". But if you look at your baby, is he happy, healthy, and developing normally? If he is, then I see no need to worry about his calorie intake or his growth. Although having 3 "barely wet" diapers per day is concerning, if that's really all he has had. Are you counting poop diapers in that tally, and if you did, would the tally change? Most poop diapers also contain pee.

Now, if you are concerned about your baby's growth, here are some things you can do:
- If your baby is sleeping long stretches at night, wake him up and nurse him. Babies can get a lot of calories during the night.
- Nurse more often during the day.
- Make sure there are no barriers to you having a good supply. Pregnancy or the wrong hormonal contraceptive can have negative impacts on milk supply.
- Offer high-calorie solids like avocados, meats, and beans, and add a drizzle of olive oil to your baby's fruits and veggies. I don't think you need to take this approach, though!
- Give your baby a daily multivitamin- it can't hurt and might help.
- Make sure your baby gets his iron and lead levels tested- a lot of docs do this routinely around 9-10 months but I have been shocked to learn how many don't.

March 26th, 2014, 12:44 PM

@llli*apifera

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

He has not been pooping regularly, so no. Last week he didn't go for six days. I finally got him to eat some apples and prunes and he had his first solids poop which seemed to hurt him a lot. After that, he was interested in food for a few days then started refusing again. He has had one poop since, which was a mix of liquid and solid.

He eats every few hours at night. I am not on any kind of birth control and I just finished my period but it hadn't affected my supply before now.

The thing is that he doesn't se hungry. He is pretty high needs so it can be hard to tell- is he frustrated or hungry? But all in all I don't get the impression he is. But he really just doesn't seem to be peeing much.

One compounding factor... We were using cloth diapers and our dryer broke so we are using disposables. It has been over a month now... But I thought I might just not be used to the absorbency, went on kellymom and saw that 600-900 ml is a full diaper, tested the disposable out and his diapers, even if left on longer, NEVER feel even remotely as heavy as 600 ml.

If he wasn't getting enough there would be signs of dehydration, right?

Also, he was a late bloomer and only in the hast two weeks has he begun climbing up on everything and crawling.

March 26th, 2014, 12:47 PM

@llli*apifera

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

Oh, and he grew am in h between 6 and 9 months. Is that a good growth? Would it account for the weight?

March 26th, 2014, 12:49 PM

@llli*apifera

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

Sorry for all the errors, I'm on my phone. He grew an inch *

March 26th, 2014, 12:55 PM

@llli*mommal

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

When a baby has constipation, focus on the "P" fruits: peaches, plums, aPricots, and prunes. Cherries, grapes, and blueberries are good, too. You want to avoid the constipating BRAT foods: bananas, rice, apples, and toast.

I'm kind of scratching my head over the diaper output. 3 not very wet diapers per day is low, even for a 9 month old. Older babies sometimes have fewer diapers because they learn to hold their pee, but when that happens they usually produce a few very soaked diapers. Does your baby pee when his diaper is off? That could account for some of the missing pees.

March 26th, 2014, 01:04 PM

@llli*apifera

Re: 9 months, will not eat solids

No... He hasn't peed during naked time in I don't know how long. It's weird, isn't it?